About Us

CHS Group is all about people. We’re about the 7,000 people living in our affordable homes. We’re about the 2,000 people who choose to rely on our care, support and community investment services, and about the CHS team of 400 people listening to our customers who make sure we deliver the high quality services they want.

CHS was founded in 1927 in response to a desperate need for affordable homes in Cambridge. Alarmed by the squalid housing conditions many of the town’s poorest families lived in and the growing council waiting lists following the First World War, members of the United Council of Christian Witness decided to form a Housing Society. Their rallying cry was to provide ‘homes fit to live, within the reach of the lowest wage earner’ and throughout its lifetime, CHS has tried to live up to this aim.

CHS Group is the trading name of The Cambridge Housing Society Ltd, an exempt charity: HMRC Charity no X81275. CHS is a society registered for the benefit of the community with the FCA under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014: registered society no 10457R. Homes & Communities Agency: registered no L0992. Our Governing Board is made up of paid and volunteer members from the local community and is responsible for the overall strategies and policies of CHS. CHS complies fully with the National Housing Federation’s 2015 Code of Governance and its 2012 Code of Conduct.

We are independent and believe we have value as a locally based and geographically focused service provider. This value lies in:

Being more accessible to our customers

Delivering a wide range of appropriate and relevant services to meet local needs and aspirations

Investing in people and communities

Providing services which are distinct from other housing and support providers

Having strong, local and up to date understanding of local needs and markets

Having the capacity and knowledge to engage with stakeholders

Being prepared to develop new services to tackle particular local problems

We have established a test to ensure that any successful partnership proposals improve our ability to meet our objectives.

For regular updates on all our services read the latest issue of our stakeholder newsletter CHS In Focus